Leo X

Original name Giovanni de' Medici (b. 1475, Florence, d. 1521, Rome), one of the most extravagant of the Renaissance popes (reigned 1513-21), who made Rome a centre of European culture and raised the papacy to significant political power in Europe. He depleted the papal treasury, and, by his response to the developing Reformation, he contributed to the dissolution of the unified Western church. Leo excommunicated Martin Luther in 1521.

Born Giovanni de' Medici, he was the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the ruler of the Florentine republic, and by custom thus destined for a religious life. At the early age of eight young Giovanni received the tonsure - a ceremony involving the cutting of hair from the head, thus indicating the change of status from lay to clerical - and five years later became the cardinal-deacon of Sta. Maria in Dominica. He received the finest education available in Europe at the court of his father under several tutors, including the philosopher Pico della Mirandola (1463-94). From 1489 to 1491 the youthful ecclesiastic studied theology and canon law at the University of Pisa. In 1492 he became a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals and attempted to take up residence in Rome. The death of his father later in the same year, however, brought him back to Florence where he lived with his older brother, Piero.

The election of Pope Alexander VI took him back to Rome for the conclave (assembly of cardinals to elect the pope); otherwise he lived in Florence until he was exiled in November 1494 with the other members of the Medici family on the charge of their betraying the republic. For the next six years Cardinal de' Medici travelled throughout northern Europe. In 1500 he returned to Italy and settled in Rome. Upon the death of his brother Piero, Giovanni became the head of the Medici family. During 1503 he took part in the conclaves that elected first Pius III (September) and then Julius II (October). Named papal legate to Bologna and Romagna in 1511, he supervised the reestablishment of Medici control of Florence the following year; and, although his younger brother Giuliano actually held the first place in the Florentine republic, it was the Cardinal who ruled.

With the death of Julius II on Feb. 21, 1513, the Sacred College of Cardinals was summoned to elect a successor. The conclave met on March 4, and with minimal deliberation the cardinals, who desired a peace-loving successor to the warlike Julius, elected Cardinal de' Medici on March 11. Taking the title of Leo X the pontiff-elect was ordained a priest on March 15 and consecrated bishop of Rome on the 17th. Two days later the papal coronation took place.

At 37 years of age the new pope was the personification of Renaissance ideals. Having spent his youth at the court of Lorenzo de' Medici, he had acquired the mannerisms and tastes of one of the most brilliant societies of Europe and posed a sharp contrast to the soldier-pope whom he succeeded. He fit extremely well into the atmosphere of calm and quiet of which Rome was desirous after 10 years under Julius II. Leo was lavish in his spending not only of the church's money but also of his own. Under his patronage Rome again became the cultural centre of the Western world. The construction of St. Peter's Basilica - initiated under Julius II - was accelerated, the holdings of the Vatican Library were greatly increased, and the arts flourished. Even the piety of the papacy was revised to some extent after the low reputation it had reached under the Borgia popes (Calixtus III and Alexander VI).

The fifth Lateran Council occupied the new pope during the first five years of his pontificate. Called by Julius II two years before his death, the council was designed to nullify the efforts of nine rebellious cardinals who had called for a council to meet at Pisa in order to revive the conciliar movement - intending to place ecclesiastical authority in councils, rather than the papacy - of the previous century. Although "Pisa II" collapsed when first the German emperor (Maximilian I, 1459-1519) and then the French king (Louis XII, 1462-1515) withdrew their support, the Lateran Council opened in 1512. Leo X, who inherited the council before it was a year old, was little inclined to preside over the sweeping reforms that the church so desperately needed on the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Poorly attended, and dominated by Italian bishops, the council debated the principal issues of the day; but there was neither direction nor encouragement from the pontiff, nor the urgency and necessity that would spur on the Council of Trent some 40 years later. Thus the council was dissolved (March 16, 1517), without significant action, just before Martin Luther's circulation of his Ninety-five Theses. (See Researcher's Note.)

Leo X was not only the head of the Christian Church, he was also the temporal ruler of the Papal States and head of the Medici family that ruled the Florentine republic. To exert his influence in Italy he resorted to the common practice of nepotism (granting offices or benefits to relatives, regardless of merit). To the influential archbishopric of Florence he appointed his cousin, and future pope (Clement VII), Giulio de' Medici. He also named his younger brother Giuliano and his nephew Lorenzo to be Roman patricians. Giuliano's premature death in 1516 brought an end to the Pope's plan to create a central Italian kingdom for him. On July 1, 1517, following and as a result of an attempt upon his life earlier in the same year, Leo named 31 new cardinals, thus prejudicing the College of Cardinals with papal supporters. One cardinal (Alfonso Petrucci) was strangled in prison, and others were imprisoned and executed when they were implicated in the attempted assassination.

In his struggle to dominate Italy, Leo X was confronted by the awesome power of Spain and the determination of the French kings. Louis XII of France marched into Italy in 1513 to make good his claims to Milan and Naples. Reluctantly Leo formed the League of Mechlin, in which Spain provided the major military strength. The French were defeated at Novara, and Louis renounced his claims and withdrew his army. The peace was short-lived. The ascent of Francis I (1494-1547) in 1515 to the throne of France led to the renewal of the war. Although Leo renewed the coalition of Spain, the Empire, and England, Francis won the Battle of Marignano (Sept. 14, 1515). The Pope made peace with the French king and then followed it up with the Concordat of Bologna. Promulgated in the form of a papal bull (Primitiva) on Aug. 18, 1516, the concordat regulated church-state relations in France for the next 275 years. The French kings were given the power to nominate bishops, abbots, and priors, though the popes did retain the right to nominate candidates to fill vacant benefices in curia and certain other benefices. Though the pope always had the power to veto a nomination of the king's, in practice the lay monarch's choice was tantamount to an appointment. This control over the church in France on the part of the kings explains, in part, why the monarchy showed little interest in Protestantism during the 16th century.

The death of the Holy Roman emperor, Maximilian I, in 1519 brought Leo further into the political arena. The Habsburg candidate, Charles (1500-58) of Spain, had succeeded his maternal grandparents Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) and Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504) in 1516 and now sought to follow his paternal grandfather, Maximilian, to the powerful German throne. Both Francis I and Frederick the Wise (1463-1525) of Saxony, however, immediately put forward their candidacy. Leo - fearing that if the empire were joined to either France or Spain, Italy would come under the power of the victor - threw his support in favour of Frederick. The election of Charles I of Spain as Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire led to war between France and Spain, and although Leo would have preferred to remain neutral he cast his lot with the new emperor when Francis again invaded Italy.

The ever-pressing financial undertakings of the papacy kept Leo X in constant need of new means of raising revenue. The wars with France, his lavish support of the arts, the construction of St. Peter's, and a projected crusade against the Turks all contributed to the financial needs of the papacy. One important source of revenue had long been the dispensing of indulgences (remission of the temporal penalty for sins) for money. During the reign of Julius II, indulgences had been authorized for financial contributions for the construction of St. Peter's. Leo, who was very much interested in continuing this work, reaffirmed the indulgence shortly after his ascent. Nevertheless, because of its unpopularity in northern Europe, based primarily on economic reasons, it was not until early in 1517 that a Dominican friar actually began to preach the indulgence in the archdioceses of Mainz and Magdeburg (Germany). In response to this preaching, Martin Luther circulated his Ninety-five Theses.

By the following year (1518) Luther's ideas had reached Rome, and Leo ordered the head of the Augustinian order, of which Luther was a member, to discipline the troublesome monk. When this failed the Pope tried to work through Frederick of Saxony, but again to no avail. During the course of the Leipzig debates in the summer of 1519, the Catholic theologian Johann Eck (1486-1543) manoeuvred Luther into publicly professing heresy on three accounts. On June 15, 1520, Leo issued a document condemning Luther of heresy on 41 accounts and ordered him to submit to the authority of Rome within 60 days or suffer excommunication. Luther, who by this time had gained the support of influential figures in Germany, openly defied the Pope. Thus, Leo was left no alternative but to issue a papal bull (Decet Romanum Pontificem) of excommunication on Jan. 3, 1521.

Leo X had not taken the Lutheran movement with the seriousness that history later indicated was warranted. But the church, after all, had withstood the teachings of an English reformer, John Wycliffe (c. 1330-84), and a Bohemian reformer, Jan Hus (c. 1372/73-1415), and was at the time weathering those of the Renaissance humanist Erasmus (c. 1466-1536). Leo viewed Luther as merely another heretic whose teachings would lead some of the faithful astray but that, as had happened in the past, the true religion would triumph in time. Furthermore, the political climate of Germany was not favourable for strong action against Luther and his supporters. Thus, the new movement spread rapidly in the north with relatively little interference from the papacy. In December 1521 Leo X died suddenly, leaving behind him political turmoil in Italy and religious turmoil spreading across northern Europe.